MaryRuth Ghiyam’s journey to becoming a transformative figure in the wellness industry is marked by her resilience and tireless pursuit of knowledge. Following the loss of her dad and brother, and her mother’s diagnosis with two brain tumors, Ghiyam set off on a quest to discover the body’s innate ability to heal itself. 

This journey would eventually lead her to launch ​​MaryRuth’s, a mission-driven health and wellness brand offering vegan, non-GMO and select organic vitamins, supplements and snacks.

We sat down with Ghiyam to delve into how she grew MaryRuth’s from a small, family-run operation selling a single product on Amazon, to one of the largest companies in the wellness space, making waves, not only in direct-to-consumer sales, but also trend-setting in retail and earning the #1 performing VMS brand during Amazon’s October Prime Big Deal Days.

On a Mission to Offer Life-Enhancing Health Products

Before becoming the CEO of MaryRuth’s, Ghiyam was a certified health educator, culinary chef, and nutritional consultant. She’s also a mom to four young children. What sets her apart is that she only crafts products she and her family would personally take, ensuring the utmost care and quality. 

Although Ghiyam now runs a flourishing company, she had a difficult start. After her family’s failed business left her in $700K in debt in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Ghiyam used client feedback from her private nutrition practice to develop a liquid morning multivitamin. At first, Ghiyam thought her client base would remain small, but instead, her multivitamin exploded in popularity. 

As she elaborated, “In 2013, I had a private nutrition practice. And I was sharing with clients a concept called Liquids Till Lunch, which is just having a smoothie, green juice, or broth until lunchtime. All of my clients would say, ‘Oh, I love doing liquids till lunch, but every time I take a multivitamin capsule while doing it, I get nauseous.’ That gave me the idea to make our very first product, the Raspberry Liquid Morning Multivitamin. We have over 200 products now, but it’s still our number one best-selling product.”  

Ghiyam’s passion for wellness would also lead her to write her 2021 book Liquids Till Lunch, published by HarperOne. From practicing positive thinking to managing stress, Liquids Till Lunch is a roadmap anyone can follow to substantially improve their health, happiness, and psychological well-being, all while tackling the greatest challenge of all – being kind to yourself. By using these methods, people from all walks of life have overcome health and emotional obstacles they once thought were insurmountable. 

Ghiyam further described the way that she was able to organically grow her business through word of mouth and positive reviews. “I sold these first batches out of my office on my bookshelf, and I just happened to start putting them on Amazon. Then my clients, without me even asking, started to leave reviews! I just absolutely love the way that I wasn’t trying to make a supplement. It’s just part of a routine that I really believe in. And I believe that routines are so important. They go along with another theme I believe in, that structure creates freedom.”

Lessons For How To Successfully Scale Your Business

Having served as CEO of MaryRuth’s for the last nine years, Ghiyam has learned a number of important lessons for how to successfully manage and scale a family-run business in one of the most competitive fields. 

“It’s so important to go slow, and to be patient,” she emphasized, “There’s a quote, ‘Everyone overestimates what they can do in one year, and underestimates what they can do in ten years.’ To go from being in debt over ten years ago to the thriving company I have now, that was done in a very patient way.”

Another important lesson for Ghiyam has been to never spend more money than the company has. That’s how MaryRuth’s has remained profitable since day one. “I said, okay, we have ninety bottles of vitamins, we’re going to sell some in my office, some on Amazon. We’re going to get a check, and with that, buy more inventory, and we’re going to keep going,” she said, thinking back on her journey, “That’s what allowed us to have free will. Because financial stability and financial freedom is free will. A lot of times that’s what gets sticky in business. If you’re not watching the cash flow and balance sheet carefully, you might have to take more and more rounds of funding.” 

In fact, Ghiyam actually said no to a lot of investment deals that might have jeopardized this slow and methodical approach to scaling. “I think that’s what allowed us to get to this place where we were more in control,” she said.

For more kernels of wisdom, follow Ghiyam on Instagram, where she loves sharing life tips and  regularly conducts firechat chats, giving away products at every session.  

About MaryRuth’s 

MaryRuth’s — founded by health educator, culinary chef, and nutritional consultant MaryRuth Ghiyam — only crafts products she and her family personally take, ensuring the utmost care and quality. MaryRuth’s product line of delicious vitamins and supplements for all life stages is available at Whole Foods Market, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Vitamin Shoppe, Kroger, H-E-B, and more. Take control of your health and move forward every day here: https://www.maryruthorganics.com/